Dead Souls
by rrdt
Summary: If ghosts are dead, then why do you see a semblance of life, no matter how little there is left, in them?


**Author's Notes:** This is something random. It all started with the insignificant line of '_salt the son of a bitch_', and then it evolved into this after I thought about and decided to write the first and the last paragraphs. The person ('he', 'I') referred to in here is Sam, and 'they' refer to ghosts. _Italics _mean emphasized words, depending on the context. I know this can be confusing, but I do hope you'll like it. Thanks in advance to all who'll read, and read and review. Happy reading.

**Summary:** If ghosts are dead, then why do you see a semblance of life, no matter how little there is left, in them?

**Warning:** PG for language/swearing

**Disclaimer:** Supernatural, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, and anything else related to the TV show belong to WB and Eric Kripke. Definitions of the terms _dead_,_ soul_ and _ghost _taken from Google. The title of this fic is borrowed from the Nine Inch Nails song of the same name (originally by Joy Division).

**Dead Souls**

Sometimes he hears them, or he thinks he hears them, calling him, begging him, for salvation.  
_  
Deliver us from evil._

That's when he usually aims whatever ammo he's got on the thing and fires a round of salt. Dead is dead, ghosts are ghosts, hurt them before they hurt you. That's the way they do things – the way hunters do things.

Still, the wraiths haunt him to no end. Sometimes he believes maybe it's his conscience. Sometimes he believes maybe he's been wrong all along.

_Do ghosts have souls?  
----------_

We've been taught since we were children the difference between living and non-living things.

Living things are called such because they are alive. They breathe. They live. Non-living things are inanimate. Unresponsive, and lifeless. Dead.

But ghosts – one can see them, taste them, feel them. One can see their otherworldly visage, taste their moldy, decaying breath, feel their presence like a seeping, paralyzing cold. They can hurt you, and they can be hurt.

Living and non-living.  
In reality, sometimes it's difficult to say which one is which.  
----------

_Are ghosts the souls of dead people?_

He had asked his father this question once, when he was younger and he didn't know better. _No_, his father had said. The soul is the essence of a person, when he's alive. When a person dies, his soul goes with him, dies with him. Ghosts – ghosts are remnants of people who die who are afraid to, or refuse to, move on.

_Then where do dead souls go? And where do ghosts come from?  
----------_

If I die, my soul dies with me. Goes with me, to heaven (if it exists), or to hell (most definitely – for its existence is proven by all of my experiences. There is a hell, a living hell, a hell on earth). If I die and I refuse to let go, to move on, where does my soul go? It remains here, because I don't want to go anywhere but here.

_Ghosts are remnants of people who are afraid to, or refuse to, move on.  
----------_

If ghosts are dead, then why do you see a semblance of life, no matter how little there is left, in them?  
----------

_Dead_. Adjective – not showing characteristics of life. Noun – people who are no longer living.

_Soul_. Noun – life force or essence, person.

_Ghost_. Noun – apparition, spirit, specter, _disembodied soul of a dead person_.  
----------

When they go out hunting, sometimes he hears them, or he thinks he hears them, calling him, begging him, for salvation.

_Deliver us from evil._

That's when he usually hesitates, before his older brother would yell at him to _salt the son of a bitch_. Dead is dead, ghosts are ghosts, hurt them before they hurt you. That's the way they do things – the way hunters do things. His hesitation – sometimes he believes maybe it's his conscience. Sometimes he believes maybe he's been wrong – they've been wrong – all along.

_Ghosts_. When he looks at their eyes, it's as if he's catching a glimpse of their lost humanity.  
These beings – they were once someone else's mother, father, brother, beloved. These beings - they were once like _him_. Human.

_-Fin-_


End file.
